Where did this debt come from?

This will prompt some sneers, “surely this man knows how he got into this hole?”. Well…partly, genuinely I know some of the history and can see some of the origin of the mountain. But, equally genuinely, I didn’t see the rest coming…

My first debt is the obvious one, credit cards! Everyone had credit cards, they were easy to get, and paying the minimum off each month seemed ‘logical’. I had 2, I still have 2! The problem is, once you have a credit card you are always behind with money. You’ve already spent it, but you don’t want to pay it all off or it eats into your pay. Very immature outlook, but too late to moan about it now, I will just use the experience to discourage my children from having them.

So here is some irony, between 2000 and 2008 I had 3 large bank loans, 2 to buy a car and 1 for a house extension. I say large, two were under 3k and 1 was 9.5k. Why the irony, well I not only paid them off, I paid them off early! Can I get a loan nowadays, nope, not even £500! I think the loans were a challenge and pride for me, I wanted to pay them off. I don’t know why I viewed the credit cards differently, probably because they were so flexible. The loan was a set amount and you HAD to pay it. And I did.

My debt has built up through 4 reasons:

1. Bad decisions

2. Other people’s bad decisions

3. bad luck

4. HMRC (see blog 2)

The second debt was HMRC, we will explore this many many times. Built up through inexperience on my part as someone who was self employed, some honest mistakes, some errors from an accountant and some errors from the HMRC. Either way, it has been left to me.

The third debt, it’s to people I know. Cue the horrified looks, but these people helped me. I am still paying them back and they are my priority. What it showed here was faith. You see, you are desperate, you try the bank and other lending entities. You outline your problem, and how you can pay it back. I think they are already writing NO on the form when you walk through the door.

I will explore each of the 4 reasons above fully in the weeks to come.